History of Johannesburg

When gold was discovered in the area in 1886, Johannesburg sprang up
from the veld as a rowdy mining camp. Not much more than 100 years ago,
what is now the economic and industrial centre of South Africa was
then an endless untouched savannah. When the first gold was found,
the news spread like wildfire and the area experienced an unprecedented
gold rush. The government sent two deputies, who founded a little settlement
and named it after the first name they both had in common, Johannesburg.
Three years later the place was the biggest town in the country. By 1875,
almost 100 000 people lived in Johannesburg and the mines employed more
than 75 000 workers. Black people from the homelands were brought in to work
in the mines, for at least a year at a time. During this
time they were separated from their wives and children and were living
under inhumane conditions in the so-called 'hostels'. To stay
emotionally in contact with their home and their culture, many of the
men started to practise their traditional dances. In the course of
the years these performances of the mine dancers also became part of
the weekend entertainment for many whites in Johannesburg.

Major building developments took place in the 1930s, after South Africa
went off the gold standard. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Hillbrow
went high-rise. In the 1950s and early 1960s, the apartheid government
constructed the massive agglomeration of townships that became known as
Soweto (SOuth WEstern TOwnships). New freeways encouraged massive suburban
sprawl to the north of the city. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, great
American-style tower blocks (including the Carlton Centre) filled the
skyline of the central business district. The central area of the city
underwent something of a decline in the 1980s and 1990s when property
speculators directed large amounts of capital into suburban shopping
malls, decentralised office parks, and entertainment centres. Sandton City
was opened in 1973, followed by Rosebank Mall in 1976, and Eastgate in 1979.

Johannesburg is reputed to have more trees than any other city in the
world (6 million trees, twice the human population).